why do we say 'passed'?

When someone is heartbroken does it matter what words they use. There’s always someone there ready to nitpick.

Would depend who I was talking too. I do tend to say that someone has died to most people though. It feels the most understood word and doesn't cause offence to those who do not belive in an afterlife.
A child for instance can let the imagination run wild if the wrong terminology is used. A friend told her grandaughter a neighbour had passed away and gone to heaven and two weeks later the child wanted to know when they were coming back!

I say died or dead. When my mother died I found the euphemism of passed annoyed me! It did not make my grief any easier to cope with

The worst, on some tombstones, is "fell asleep in Jesus."

One of the recent programme about the jubilee showed footage of the queen returning from Kenya and the newscaster used the words "the King's passing".
I heard the expression recently "there's been a passing". I wanted to ask it if was a passing bus, a passing thought.....

I’m not bothered either way whatever someone feels comfortable with. It certainly doesn’t upset me either way.

If you believe in an afterlife then passed is probably the right word as you believe they have passed over into another dimension. If you don't believe then dead is good enough.

I have a friend who uses the expression ‘Late’, which, once I got used to it, sounds rather nice. After all, we say ‘My late mother/husband/brother/sister etc’ so therefore they are Late

Mind you I quite like 'dear departed'.

I use the word died, it was hard saying it but I felt it made the situation clear. My friend phone me to say she had lost her mother, I said rather matter of fact, that was careless of you where were you …..

Gone to the other side another silly expression people have used. I have asked the other side of where?
Is it not politically correct now to say died or dead what next I wonder?

I don’t like passed. Silly euphemism.

I prefer to say died, I wouldn’t use passed or lost. Each to their own.

I agree with Farzanah about being ready-we all have to go one day. My maternal grandmother, a devout Roman Catholic, a sensible, hard working lady used to say “always have your bag packed and be ready to go at a moment’s notice” bless her.
In my earlier post I said I’d said to a lovely elderly man that I was sorry for his loss-not what I usually say, I was just surprised to see him and I was taken unawares.

I'm a bereavement/dying specialist I never say passed I always say dead dying etc

suzikyoo

I'm with aonk. These newfangled expressions are all part of this 'woke' attempt at re-organisation of everything we think, say and feel. My loved ones died, that means they no longer are among the living so are now dead . (I have no idea what they 'passed' on their way out!) Not a difficult concept to grasp, surely??

'Passed away' isnt any new fangled or woke expression - has been in use forever, in various variations -eg "passed away" seems the australian term, just "passed" the american one

there are different uses of language and context matters - that isnt a difficult concept to grasp either is it?

I always say died about my own bereavements, but take my lead from whoever has suffered the loss of a family member.

I like the old Lancashire expression"They've popped (pawned) their clogs", though I rarely hear it now.

When my husband died I said he was dead. Never said passed. I hate saying my late husband. As my husband was never late in his life. When I talk about I sometimes have to say late husband as people think he's still alive if I don't. I have been widowed for 18 years since I was 45 and my husband 47. I hate being classed as single . To me I am still married and hate it if people say Miss or Ms I am Mrs and always will be. Still wear my wedding ring. My husband was and is the love of my life. My one and only.

It’s to do with faith I think - ‘passed on’, ‘passed away’ to a new life. I’m always amazed that someone who dies who had absolutely no faith or their family have no faith and the family talks about that person being with already dead relatives or in heaven. I guess it’s a comfort thing, but either you believe or you don’t!

When my cat died I was visiting my sister and her little daughter asked why I was upset. Because her cat has gone to the happy hunting ground. Later there was a dead cat in the gutter. Niece “ pussy gone to the happy hunting grounds”.

I am not sure it is to do with faith. Plenty of people with religious beliefs will talking of peple dying or being dead.

I lways think it dates back to a time when death and things like that were things not talked about in polite company and people used euphamisms instead. A few generations down the line it now all depends on what vocabulary your family have used in the past and handed down. I grew up in a family that talked about death and people having died, my mother would have never have said anything to upset anyone, but if I or my sisters had ever used the words 'passing' rather than 'has died' or 'is dead', we would have been corrected.

"Passing" as in from one state to another - life to death - and "loss" as in the loss of the living physical presence of a loved one are not mealy mouthed, soften the blow, semantic euphemisms but actual descriptions of fact. Feel free to use them in the knowledge that you're grammatically correct.

I’m definitely in the dead /died camp , even ‘passed away’
But ‘Passed’ just doesn’t sound right to me.
If I am told someone has ‘ Passed’ I immediately think they have passed some sort of test.

Me too for saying died.
Saying passing sounds like when the flowers are over, and people say they've passed.

I had a dear friend who on being told someone had lost her partner remarked that was very careless of her.
I too dislike many euphemisms however I’ve been guilty of saying ‘when I fall off the perch’.